Bellevue investment adviser gets nine-year sentence in Ponzi scheme

Bellevue investment adviser Chris Young Yoo, who pleaded guilty to wire fraud and making false statements for diverting millions of dollars from clients at Summit Asset Strategies, was sentenced to nine years in prison and payment of nearly $3.7 million in restitution.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, at the sentencing hearing, U.S. District Judge Thomas S. Zilly said, “You’ve destroyed (the victims) lives, financially, emotionally and physically … your scheme went on for nine years. I think a nine-year sentence is appropriate.” read more »

Wells Fargo Borrower Got Unneeded Insurance, and Ruined Credit

Wells Fargo has promised to make amends to the customers it forced to buy car insurance that they didn’t need. Allan Dunlap, a former Wells Fargo borrower who spent months trying to get the bank to correct an insurance error that marred his credit report, says he’ll believe it when he sees it.

Some 800,000 people were affected by the Wells Fargo auto insurance dealings, according to an in-depth analysis commissioned by the bank. The expense of the unneeded insurance, which covered collision damage, propelled 274,000 bank customers into delinquency and resulted in almost 25,000 wrongful vehicle repossessions.

Wells Fargo said that it discontinued the insurance practices last September after it had found “inadequacies in vendor processes and internal controls that negatively impacted some customers.” The bank has contended that 570,000 people may be owed refunds.

Mr. Dunlap, 55, is one of those affected by the bank’s insurance activities. His experience with Wells Fargo highlights the harm done to actual people. read more »

Lawsuit against precious metals dealers alleges $2.8 million fraud

Precious metal dealers in Boca Raton, Boynton Beach and Palm Beach charged with fraud

A Palm Beach County group of precious metal companies, working together as Berkley Enterprise, allegedly engaged in $2.8 million of illegal, off-exchange transactions of gold, silver, palladium and diamonds, according to a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. read more »

Cell Tower Manager Accused in WB Suit of Pocketing Fees Meant for New York

Crown Castle International Corp., the U.S.’s second-largest operator of mobile phone towers, defrauded New York by concealing fees it received from wireless carriers that were supposed to be split with the state, according to a whistleblower lawsuit unsealed in state court.

The allegations surround the Houston-based company’s exclusive contract with the New York State Police to run phone towers on publicly owned land. Crown also manages fiber optic systems that link antennas on utility poles or buildings to a central hub to increase mobile voice and data capacity.

Under a 1997 contract that gave Crown a site-management monopoly, the company agreed to split with the state the user fees received from wireless carriers such as AT&T Inc., Sprint Corp., T-Mobile US Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. read more »